By The Straits Times | Created at 2026-06-23 05:26:48 | Updated at 2026-06-24 01:10:11
20 hours ago
CANBERRA – Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese rejected a call from far-right party leader Senator Pauline Hanson for Australia to become a “monocultural” society, saying the idea was divisive and based on “nonsense”.
“Modern Australia is not a monoculture, and never has been,” Albanese said on June 23 when asked about the One Nation leader’s comments. “It’s really a nonsense argument to go back to something that was never actually there, and I think it’s an example of policies and a vision for the country that doesn’t represent who we are in 2026.”
Hanson’s One Nation party has surged in polls over the past six months, with recent surveys showing it is now the most popular party in the country. In her speech on June 17, Hanson assailed the longstanding policy of multiculturalism and said the immigration programme had pushed the country into a crisis.
In an earlier television appearance on June 16, Hanson said: “We’re multiracial, but at the end of the day, we must look at being Australians instead of all these different little individual groups who live in their own cultures, and their own laws and their own beliefs.”
“Japan has a monoculture, so what’s wrong with Australia having a monoculture,” she said. “It’s about being united under the one culture, and everyone should be treated the same under one law. I’m not saying forget where you came from or your cultural background.”
Albanese rejected the assertion that Australia had ever been a monoculture. He highlighted that even before white settlement in the late 18th century, “there were many First Nations”, adding that the first settlers of the country were also not unified.
“Our diversity is a strength,” the prime minister said, adding that “we won’t move forward if we get stuck in these cultural debates that are all aimed at dividing people.” BLOOMBERG
